Anti-trade-pact ammo: Child labor

President Barack Obama is trying to finalize a blockbuster Pacific Rim trade deal by the end of this year, but a typical ally is ready to fight him on it with a compelling argument: child labor abuses overseas.

Labor unions oppose the administration’s proposed 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership out of fear that reduced tariffs for competing Asian manufacturers will hurt American businesses and their workers. They are pointing to poor working conditions in Vietnam as a reason to nix the deal.

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That could be a problem for Obama if Democrats in Congress buy the argument, making it even tougher for him to get a deal across the goal line in a deeply divided Washington. Republicans are more inclined to support free trade, but aren’t looking to give Obama a victory.

“This is a classic kind of confrontation between fair trade and free trade,” says Mike Dolan, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ lobbyist. “Now that we’re in the end game in these negotiations, we have to raise the stakes a little bit – with our friends on the Hill and our international allies – and say, ‘Don’t do the deal.’”

The deal, which is currently the subject of a 19th round of negotiations in Brunei, is an economic centerpiece of Obama’s “Asian pivot” – a step to keep Southeast Asian countries from organizing exclusively around China’s rising economy. Vietnam is the least-developed country participating in the talks, which means it could be a ripe target for U.S. exports of chicken and beef, timber and machinery. But unions have honed in on Vietnam as they ready a lobbying effort against both the deal and the fast-track negotiating authority Congress likely needs to give the administration in order to finalize the pact.

The warnings of American job losses due to an influx of cheap foreign products is not a new song for labor to play, but the element of child labor adds an interesting wrinkle.

In a letter sent Monday, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa raises labor issues with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. He presses Froman for details on what the Obama administration will do to ensure that Vietnam “can comply with the basic labor rights that we take for granted in the U.S.” He also asks whether Vietnam’s participation in the deal would be tied to the country overhauling its labor and human rights practices.

Hoffa points to a widely circulated Worker Rights Consortium report published in May. It documents a long list of human rights violations in Vietnam – most pointedly, children as young as 14 being pulled from rural areas into urban factories and in some cases forced to work 12-hour days, in violation of the country’s hardly-enforced labor laws and with little to no overtime pay.

And then the union leader cuts to the chase: The United States should not open the door to a growing trade deficit in manufactured goods, “especially on account of cheap imports in shoes and apparel from Vietnam or any country in which forced child labor has been documented,” he says.

His letter follows a similar inquiry in July from Rep. George Miller of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, who called on Froman to “lead in enforcement of labor obligations.”

Froman pushed back in his response to Miller. He said trade negotiations are the best way to get Vietnam to make concessions on labor and human rights, and that the United States wants “strong obligations” in those areas.

Vietnam has good reason to come to the table.

The United States is the world’s top shoe importer, at more than $22 billion last year. Though China accounted for most of those imports at $16.7 billion, ranking second was Vietnam at $2.4 billion, according to U.S. International Trade Administration statistics. The apparel market is even larger: The United States imported $77 billion in clothing last year, including $7.1 billion from Vietnam.

Vietnam is pushing to quickly grow that number by gaining new tariff-free access to the U.S. market. For that to happen, a number of details must still be hammered out. The deal is likely to include a rule specifying that textiles and apparel only qualifies for the lowered or eliminated tariffs if each step in its production process – from the yarn forward – must take place in a country that is party to the agreement. Negotiators could also allow a limited list of exceptions to that rule, which could allow the import of garments made of fabric from China and produced in Vietnam.